The present invention relates to vending machines. One aspect of the invention relates in particular to vending machines of the type that comprise (i) a plurality of receptacles (e.g., rows, trays or columns) for holding units of products, each receptacle being operable to hold a respective plurality of units in a series; and (ii) a dispensing mechanism operable to dispense, from each receptacle, a first unit in the respective plurality of units, the dispensing mechanism thereby being operable to dispense only a first unit from the respective series at a time. Such vending machines are referred to as “series dispensing” vending machines herein.
A vending machine typically holds a finite number of units of products and is refilled by an operator (e.g., a route driver) on a periodic or non-periodic basis. An operator typically loads a vending machine with a number of units of a variety of different products. For example, a first tray may be loaded with a plurality of units of a first product while a second tray may be loaded with a plurality of units of a second product. The operator typically determines how many units of each product to load based on past experience regarding demand for the products. For example, if a first product has been very popular in the past (e.g., the first product is usually sold out or almost sold out when the operator arrives to refill the vending machine), the operator may fill two or more trays of the vending machine with the product. In the same example the operator may only fill one tray of the vending machine with a second, less popular, product (e.g., a product of which some units are typically still available from the vending machine when the operator arrives to refill the vending machine).
A conventional vending machine stores very minimal information (e.g., the single price for all products available from the vending machine or, at most, respective price associated with each tray of the vending machine). It would be advantageous for a vending machine to store, or be operable to access, more detailed information regarding the products available for sale from the vending machine. This would allow various methods to be employed to facilitate additional sales from the vending machine.
Many other drawbacks of conventional vending machines limit the profitability of the vending machines.